Stricter Covid-19 testing protocol for all travellers to Singapore from Dec 2

SINGAPORE is stepping up measures to detect and contain Omicron - the new, highly mutated strain of the Covid-19 virus - with stricter testing requirements for all air travellers for an initial 4 weeks from Thursday (Dec 2).

Measures relating to Omicron "will be a lot stricter and quite similar to the initial protocols we implemented when we first encountered Covid-19", Health Minister Ong Ye Kung noted at a press briefing on Tuesday (Nov 30).

Singapore had been moving away from public health protocols based on the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003, and towards an endemic approach to Covid-19 that treats the disease as closer to influenza.

But the rise of the Omicron strain, which was first reported by South Africa last week, has already spurred a flurry of border restrictions internationally.

Singapore recently halted visitor arrivals from 7 countries in Africa and postponed the upcoming launch of three VTLs.

Ong warned that Omicron could become the dominant global strain in less time than the 3 to 4 months taken by the Delta variant.

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"However, the spread of Omicron can also be slowed down because countries this time are a lot quicker in introducing border measures," he said.

As such, all travellers entering or transiting through Singapore by air from 11.59pm on Thursday must test negative for Covid-19 within 2 days of departure for Singapore. Those who are entering Singapore will be tested again on arrival with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

Fully vaccinated air travellers using VTLs - who are exempted from the need for self-isolation - will also have to take supervised self-administered rapid tests on the 3rd and 7th days of arrival.

"These enhanced measures will apply for four weeks in the first instance, and will be reviewed and extended if necessary," the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Testing will also be stepped up for airline crew, airport staff, and other border frontline workers who may come into contact with travellers from places battling Omicron.

These workers will be put on weekly rostered routine testing using PCR from Thursday onwards, while aircrew serving flights from affected countries will be subjected to a series of 3 PCR tests after each flight duty.

Other airport and border frontline workers will continue with routine testing using rapid tests.

On top of that, the authorities are carrying out a one-time surveillance testing exercise for all travellers who arrived between Nov 12 and Nov 27 with a recent history of travel to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Said the MOH: "We are introducing a set of measures that serves as a strong yet reasonable response to the new variant to protect our local community.

"We will continue to monitor and evaluate data on the Omicron variant as it emerges and adjust our border and domestic measures accordingly."

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, a co-chair of the multi-ministry taskforce on Covid-19, added that "we should not under- or over-react" on border controls: "We really do not know enough about this new virus. So, for now, what we are doing is to take additional steps to strengthen our border measures."